Air China has officially announced that it has placed a new order with Boeing for 6 additional Boeing 777-300ERs to cater for planned long haul expansion 2017 onwards.
These planes will be configured in their normal 3 class layout seating 313 passengers i.e. 8F + 42J + 263Y. It is expected that the routes identified for the new jets are primarily for North America expansion to be more competitive against rapidly expanding Hainan and China Eastern Airlines.
Etihad Airways has announced significant capacity downgrades for its long haul operations for the IATA W16 season of which the main highlights are as follows:
SFO - capacity reduced from daily B773ER to daily B772LR
KUL - capacity reduced from daily B773ER + daily A332 to a standardized double daily A332 service
Emirates has officially announced that it will be significantly increasing its presence in both Los Angeles and Geneva from Summer 2016 onwards. The main highlights are as follows:
LAX - frequencies increased from daily A380 to double daily A380 effective 01JUL
GVA - frequencies increased from daily to double daily B773ERs effective 01JUN
DFW - capacity reduced from daily A380 to daily B773ER
Comments:
The increase for LAX is easily justified as the market demand there for all the various segments EK serves via DXB. With Iran opening up and considering over 800,000 Iranian emigrants reside in the LA area, this will help boost IKA, MHD and SYZ loads for sure in turn. EK one feels is also going to aggressively target the East/South Africa market segment to/from LAX with this new additional service as this is a niche it can provide that EY/QR cannot as well as they can.
With regards to GVA being increased to double daily, unfortunately one does not see any commercial logic to it what so ever as the demand is simply not there despite EK's massive onward route network beyond DXB! To even fill year round 60% of a double daily B77W will be a monumental task for EK when there are other markets that deserve a frequency increase such as ADD, BRU and SGN (if bilaterally allowed). Perhaps there are other ulterior motives involved such as to irritate LX/LH, poach away long haul market share bound to Asia especially or this is a good way in which to detour any hope other Asian carriers such as SQ and CX have to serve GVA nonstop in 2017.
After receiving approval from the Dutch Government a week ago, Emirates has officially announced that it will be significantly increasing capacity on its Dubai-Amsterdam route effective 01FEB.
Currently, it operates a daily A380 + daily B777-300ER however from 01FEB onwards, both daily flights will be exclusively operated with the 3 class Airbus A380s.
Fedex has announced that it will be purchasing an additional 16 Boeing 777-200LR freighters from Boeing. Currently, FX has 25 in service with another 18 on order as options which seem to have been converted here as firm.
These aircraft are scheduled to replace FX's aging fleet of 56 MD11 freighters as quickly as possible in order for the airline to realize the mega operational cost savings that the B77Fs provide versus the tri jet. In addition, the B77Fs can carry an extra 15 tons hence providing the cargo specialist a high value extra revenue earning potential.
Kuwait Airways has officially confirmed that as part of its on going route network restructuring, it will be making the below mentioned adjustments in 2016:
CGK (Jakarta) - all flights suspended effective 28MAR
KUL - all flights suspended effective 28MAR
MNL - frequencies to be increased from 6 to 9 weekly with 3 new weekly nonstop flights to be added effective 30OCT. Currently, its 6 weekly flights operate with an A332 via BKK!
HBE (Alexandria) - all flights suspended effective 28MAR
The below mentioned article also mentions that LHR + JFK flights shall be increased from IATA W16 season onwards but nothing has been published in the GDS systems as of 02JAN! These additional frequencies are possible with more deliveries of A332s and B77Ws into KU's fleet this new year.
Source: http://www.aviator.aero/press_releases/26797
Delta Airlines has disclosed via filing on Sabre GDS system that they will be reducing service into Accra, Ghana from the on set of the IATA S16 season i.e. 27MAR16.
DL used to operate 5 times per week nonstop service between New York JFK and Accra using a B767-300ER. However from late March, these shall be reduced to 4 times per week nonstop using the same aircraft type. The schedule is as follows:
Days : 2/4/5/7
DL 420 Dep JFK 1740 Arr ACC 0740+1
DL 220 Dep ACC 0925 Arr JFK 1650
Qatar Airways has officially revealed details of its new Boeing 777-300ER cabin configuration which it will be implementing across its B77W fleet. The 9 B777-200LRs will however not be reconfigured and shall remain in their current 42J + 217Y layout. The highlights of the new B77W layout is as follows:
- Economy class becomes 3-4-3 from 3-3-3
- Two configuration versions revealed i.e. for premium routes 358 seats (42J + 316Y) and for high density markets 412 seats (24J + 388Y)
- The high density B77W in 2016 will be used on a daily basis to Manila, Amsterdam, Paris (one flight out of 3), Jakarta and Amman
With regards to its expansion plans for 2016, QR has announced another round of which the main highlights are as follows:
DFW - capacity increased from daily B77L to B77W
AMS - capacity increased from daily B788 to B77W
LHE - capacity increased from daily B77L to B77W
ISB - capacity increased from daily A332 to B77W
BLR - capacity reduced from daily B77W to daily B77L
TUN - capacity increased from daily A320 to daily B788
MAN - frequencies increased to 16 times weekly with all flights exclusively operated by the A333
United Airlines has been cited in the media that it has nearly given up on his expansion plans for India and instead is focusing on boosting its presence in China where it already is the largest U.S. carrier operating in terms of number of weekly frequencies.
It is doing this by focusing its China strategy around the B787 aircraft and its SFO hub on the U.S. West Coast as the ideal strategic location.
Source: http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2015-12-28/united-pushes-china-expansion-after-hitting-roadblocks-india
Analysis:
UA should not give up totally on India expansion as there is a way in which it can boost its presence by operating to Bangalore via Hong Kong on a daily basis.
Currently, UA has 1 B777 + 1 B744 parked at HKG for 17 hours each daily operating from ORD (B777) + SFO (B744). These flights arrive into HKG between 1800-1830 and depart back between 1130-1145 the next day.
BLR-HKG is a 5 hour 30 minute flight each way and UA should seriously consider using the B777 that originates from ORD to fly to BLR via HKG for which it also has 5th freedom traffic rights. In the past UA used to operate HKG-DEL with 5th freedom rights hence getting permission for HKG-BLR should not be a big issue with a little bit of political influence.
The schedule would look like this:
Days: Daily
UA 895 Dep ORD 1310 Arr HKG 1810
UA 895 Dep HKG 2010 Arr BLR 2315
UA 896 Dep BLR 0120 Arr HKG 0940
UA 896 Dep HKG 1140 Arr ORD 1345
The above mentioned schedule allows excellent connections to SFO for BLR via HKG in both directions on UA as UA 869 lands into HKG at 1840 on a daily basis and departs back to SFO the next day at 1130 (US 862) hence offering a quick 90-120 minute transit maximum for SFO passengers to connect on to the BLR service.
The market demand is there too for UA to tap into which was as follows in 2014 (round trip pax):
BLR-HKG 63,000
BLR-SFO 82,000
BLR-ORD 34,000
BLR-LAX 25,000
BLR-IAH 18,000
BLR-DFW 20,000
BLR-SEA 17,000
In addition to the above markets, the schedule that I have proposed for UA also enables it to feed Seoul and Tokyo via Hong Kong conveniently with fellow STAR members i.e. ANA + Asiana. The demand from BLR to ICN was 17,000 where as NRT was 28,000 with neither cities seeing currently nonstop service to BLR as pax have to fly CX/SQ/TG only to get there.
With fuel prices being $40-50 a barrel it offers an attractive proposition for UA to seriously consider from IATA S16 season onwards as its market share to India is getting rapidly taken away from the Middle East carriers + CX/BA/LH !
Fiji Airways has officially unveiled its first new Airbus A330-300 that will be put into service full time soon on long haul trans-pacific flights.
The configuration sees 313 seats in total with 24 business class + 289 economy and the first 3 routes it will be used on are Auckland, Sydney and Los Angeles.
In addition, the airline announced a number of long haul service expansion plans from the on set of the IATA S16 season:
SFO - new 2 weekly nonstop flights to be launched effective 16JUN
HKG - frequencies increased from 4 to 5 weekly nonstop effective 22JUN
SIN - new 2 weekly nonstop flights to be launched effective 05APR
Singapore Airlines has officially announced that due to surging demand from Austral-Asia as well as its own home market region (SIN+KUL) to Sri Lanka over the past year, it will be increasing its presence in the Colombo marketplace effective 30MAR.
Currently, SQ operates a daily nonstop A330-300 service on this route however from late March, frequencies will be raised to 10 weekly nonstop using the same aircraft type exclusively. The additional flights are day time services scheduled as follows:
Days: 3/5/6
SQ 466 Dep SIN 0850 Arr CMB 1005
SQ 467 Dep CMB 1130 Arr SIN 1800
Qatar Airways has officially confirmed that it will be significantly expanding its presence in Europe from the on set of the IATA S16 season. The main highlights are as follows:
ATH - frequencies increased from double daily to triple daily i.e. daily A321 + daily A332 + daily A320
VIE - frequencies increased from daily to 12 weekly nonstop flights exclusively operated by B787s
BEG - new 4 weekly nonstop flights operated by the A320 to be launched
ZAG - frequencies increased from daily to 10 weekly using A320s
Turkish Airlines has officially announced that it will be increasing its presence in the Southeast Asia market segment in an aggressive manner from S16 season onwards as the carrier looks to capitalize on the downsizing of MH/TG/AF/KL in Asia.
The main highlights are as follows:
BKK - frequencies increased to double daily nonstop using an A333 exclusively with all flights being terminator operations !
TPE - frequencies increased from daily to 10 weekly nonstop using a B77W exclusively
HAN - new 5 weekly flights to be launched with an A333 effective 27JUL
China Southern Airlines (based out of Guangzhou) has officially announced that it has placed a US$ 2.3 billion order with Airbus for the procurement of 10 new A330-300s.
CZ has not indicated whether these units will be used to expand regional services or to replace its oldest A330-200 units. Currently, CZ has 16 A332s + 19 A333s in its operational fleet.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-airbus-idUSKBN0U60US20151223
Emirates has officially announced that it will be launching new daily nonstop flights between Dubai and Cebu, Philippines effective 30MAR16.
EK will be operating the new service using a 430 seater Boeing 777-300ER but in a triangular manner as the flight will be combined with CRK-Clarke, Manila (a route that EK suspended in 2014). The schedule is as follows:
Frequency - Daily
EK 338 Dep DXB 0255 Arr CEB 1620
EK 338 Dep CEB 1750 Arr CRK 1910
EK 338 Dep CRK 2040 Arr DXB 0125
The only GCC carrier that used to fly to CEB was Qatar Airways who operated a 3 weekly DOH-CEB service using an A332 until early 2012.
Philippine Airlines has officially announced that it will be launching new services to Doha, Qatar effective 28MAR16. Flights will be operated 5 times per week using a 368 seater A330-300 via Abu Dhabi.
The schedule calls for operations on Days 1/2/4/5/6 with an 0805am arrival / 1005am departure to/from Doha.
Turkish Airlines has announced that as a result of its gradual phase out of the aging Airbus A340-300 fleet from their own mainline operations, it will be increasing capacity on the Istanbul-Manila route effective 27MAR16.
The original plan was to operate 3 weekly B77Ws along with 3 A343s on a nonstop basis, however from the on set of the IATA S16 season, all 6 weekly flights will be flown by the 349 seater B77W thus representing an increase of 210 seats per direction per week.
Air Canada has officially announced that as a result of a liberalized bilateral accord struck between Canada and Australia last week, it shall be increasing its frequencies to Brisbane from June 2016.
Originally planned to be 3 weekly nonstop flights from YVR-Vancouver using a B788, these will now be increased to daily nonstop from the on set itself using the same aircraft type.
As a result of the above, the total number of weekly seats (one way) in IATA S16 season that AC will be deploying to Australia is 2100 (SYDYVR B77L daily) + 1757 (daily BNEYVR B788) giving a total of 3857 which means AC has the liberty to add another 2143 seats per week into the market should it be merited as the new bilateral allows 6000 per week per direction. If they decide to launch YVR-MEL on a daily basis with the B789 it means 2086 seats added hence under the 2143 balance amount remaining!
Source: http://www.ausbt.com.au/air-canada-daily-brisbane-vancouver-boeing-787-flight-from-june-2016
Delta Airlines has officially announced that it has placed a large order with Boeing for 20 used Embraer 90s (ex Air Canada birds) plus 20 additional Boeing 737-900ERs. The latter will be used to gradually replace its oldest MD88s and B757s operating on domestic + Central America services.
This order was actually placed many months ago for the same number of E90s but 40 B739ERs. It got later on cancelled as it was subject to a new union deal being reached between DL and its pilots which failed. Now with things in order, DL has possibly obtained further discounts over here especially with the 20 E90s which Boeing bought from Air Canada in exchange for the Canadian carrier ordering a truck load of B737MAXs to replace its entire A320 family fleet.
EVA Air has officially announced that it will be expanding its services to New York JFK and IAH-Houston in 2016 as the carrier looks to build on the popularity of these two flights as well as the beyond connectivity options on offer by fellow STAR member United Airlines out of IAH in particular.
JFK will be increased from daily to ten weekly nonstop flights using a B777-300ER with the additional 3 weekly flights scheduled as follows:
Days 2/4/6
BR 030 Dep TPE 0750 Arr JFK 1045
BR 029 Dep JFK 1245 Arr TPE 1615+1
IAH will be increased from the current 4 to daily nonstop services using also a B777-300ER effective 10OCT.
